A direct sequel to 2014’s The Lego Movie and the fourth installment in the Lego film franchise, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is a very charming and witty family friendly computer animated movie that continues the creativity of the original with funny voice acting and humorous gags. Set five years after the original, we meet the protagonist Emmet Brickowski, voiced by the charismatic Chris Pratt, living his hopelessly naive life in what has now become Apocalypseburg until his Lego world is faced with an even greater danger than before, an army of alien invaders led by Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, voiced by the comedian Tiffany Haddish. The shape-shifting Queen tries to brainwash Emmet and his friends to join her Systar System and force Batman, voiced by the gruff-sounding Will Arnett, to marry her in order to form an alliance. However, Wyldstyle or simply known as Lucy, voiced by Elizabeth Banks, knows that something is wrong and must fight off the Queen and her minions who could bring forth the so-called Our-Mom-Ageddon. Meanwhile, Emmet tries to rescue his friends, especially his love interest Lucy, and is eventually teamed up with a tough guy named Rex Dangervest, also voiced by Chris Pratt, who is cleverly yet indirectly described as a combination of the actor Chris Pratt’s other roles, including Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy and a velociraptor wrangler from Jurassic World. When Emmet and Lucy finally reunite, they realize that not everything is as it seems and that the Queen may in fact not be as bad as they initially thought. Like the original, the film takes the audience on a very entertaining adventure filled with extremely clever references and metaphorical representations of the real world in which the characters are part of two children’s imaginations. In a very creative twist, it is revealed that Emmet’s world is in the real world realm of the young boy Finn and the Queen is the real world representation of his younger sister Bianca who simply wants to play Legos with her older brother. To clarify this reality, the film occasionally cuts to live action sequences in which the feuding siblings are portrayed as well as their father, played by Will Ferrell, and mother, played by Maya Rudolph, who threatens to put all the Legos in storage if the two siblings do not get along. In the end, the movie gives a heartwarming message of the bond between brother and sister that ultimately overcomes all challenges. Overall, although it is clearly not as great as the original, I found it to be an extremely enjoyable cinematic experience as a result of the terrific and often very funny writing fleshed out by a first-rate cast of voice actors. Furthermore, I was thoroughly impressed by the level of realism generated by the computer animation that makes the Lego pieces look real and are even aged with marks that would typically appear on real life Legos over time.
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